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Thursday, April 18, 2013

The Rain Falls Mainly on The Insane

Farming is...face it...A schizophrenic occupation. And farmers, well it's just asking a lot of us to have "typical emotional responses" when it comes to the stresses in our lives.

Last summer we would have broken out the dandelion wine and behind the barn home stilled moo -juice if we could have gotten just half of the rain we've gotten the last two days.

But now that the rain is here and seemingly with no end in site, we are mopey, grumpy and easily irritated. How are we going to plant? Why is it the weeds take off in this monsoon but the pastures are just laying there under water. Why didn't I put up some rain barrels ?

Ah well. We're not alone. Our farm critters are growing tired of the moisture levels as much as we.

Wet dogs avoid eye contact

Wet Turkeys complain about cold feet (Yes, he has shelter he can enter but he would rather stay outside and whine)

Wet pig also has dry shelter behind her (see the yellow straw) but claims the abode is too dark and some lamps would be appreciated. If it's not too much trouble.

The horse paddock sucked up one of my boots and after hopping around trying to replace it on my foot I finally gave in, put my unbooted foot in the slop long enough to pull out my Wellie.

Cows glared at me, totally ticked that Keith pulled them off the green pastures as they were just packing the ground too much. Maybe in a day or two they can be put back out. If not, I suspect they might put those horns to use.

Fortunately the farmhouse sits up on a bit of a hill. Unfortunately the veggie garden is well submerged and planting is postponed for some time.

The only critter on the farm today with a smile was the Midlife Farmwifes very better half, farmer Keith. He got to abandon ship today and drive to Eureka to get more of our meat to put in the farm store. Of course he still had to come back and do evening chores. Probably not smiling so much now are we Mr. Rogers?

Grey skies today. The last two Fridays brought snow. Despite that, the peepers are peeping, most of the snow that framed my driveway is gone, and the grass is greening up. Crocus are blooming and a few daffodils are in bud.

Well lets see; Last Friday consisted of all day event of cruddy weather with freezing rain and ice pellets lasting until it was all about an inch thick. You know...just enough to break tree limbs and your favorite plants.

Today has been sunny and is currently 72 degrees. Today is MUCH better, thank you very much. New England weather tends to either be delightful or it sucks. Very little in between. But we do not get tornados - Geeze, at least there's that, right?

This is why we all love you Mrs. Farmwife! You make us laugh when we'd rather cry after receiving 6-8 INCHES of snow in April, and just when the whole winter's worth of snow had melted and we had hopes of not seeing it again for several more months. Yahoo is promising a high of 39 today, and snow for the next three days. Illinois sounds pretty good right about now:)

The weather seems to be mad everywhere - great photos though! We've had the longest winter ever but then it did start last May! Farmers are seriously short of fodder here and apparently the first imported fodder ever arrived yesterday (hay from the UK)Here's to a good summer :)Lorna

so glad your house is out of flood danger, but i can imagine what a mess the rest of the place is! makes chores and feeding dreadful, i'm sure! but i am glad your moisture levels are being replenished - even if it is late in the spring!